...Well, that was an absurdly long nap. The good news is, I'm alive!! - yeah, like you even missed me; you guys are all talk. Getting internet in my new apartment in Nagasaki turned into either an epic mission or a total farce, depending on your outlook, but the news as you need to know it is this:

1. I'm in Japan!
2. I turned 21!
3. I started my new job!
4. I realised I adore Japanese kids, after years of thinking I despised all children indiscrimately, and now I don't know who I am any more!
5. THIS DOESN'T MEAN YOU WERE RIGHT, MILLIE.
6. I have my own flat! And now that it's been professionally cleaned, I don't even have to sleep on top of the covers anymore!
7. I was rendered incapable of contacting the outside world due to lack of internet, landline, mobile phone, transport possibilities and/or language skills!
8. I watched 'Tangled' six times! (I COULDN'T REACH ANYONE AND I ONLY HAD ONE DVD, OKAY).
9. I was rescued, on my 21st birthday, by some second year local ALTs, much like Harry Potter was rescued by Hagrid on his 11th birthday, and whisked into Nagasaki City (which is presumeably Diagon Alley in this analogy) to make contact with the, um, wizarding world?
10. I discovered that the huge red peace sculpture that presides over my entire region is actually a giant slide.
11. A GIANT SLIDE!!!
12. So of course I slid down it. And then I went home and ate an ice pop. This is my life now.
13. I drank matcha soy frappuccinos, made my own doll-sized vegan birthday cake with pink icing and strawberry-rose jam, discovered the pure joy that is Japanese snacks, shared a huge rainbow sno-cone with my kids in the photography club, and bought STRAWBERRY CAKE TEA. Those are like my three favourites things: strawberries + cake + tea. LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL.
14. I missed blogging. Like, a lot. I don't know how the baking's gonna go here yet, cause I only have a little toaster oven - I managed to make my teeny birthday cake in it (although I couldn't control the temperature so the top burned a bit) but I don't know about anything more ambitious. Does anyone who knows anything about anything have any advice? Should I invest my first pay cheque in an oven?

I'm a freaking adult, man. I eat rainbows and travel by giant slide, and I'm not even kidding. If you feel like sharing the most surreal thing you've done this week, throw them at me, cause I'm on a roll right now.